Navy stands for Never Again Volunteer Yourself. At least that's what any sailor will tell you. Yet, even after 4 years active and 2 years reserve duty under my belt I still continually forget this lesson I should have learned long ago.

On Monday, My boss asked if anyone could go to NYC to help on a huge project they have and desperately need more manpower on. Having family in NJ and knowing typically we doing these assists for 2 weeks I volunteered.

Well, the information is now in. I will be leaving for Westchester County NY this weekend and be there until December 17th!!

Thankfully my employer has a policy of flying people home every 2 weeks to see family.

However, I do not know what my Internet access will be like after the 8th of October so if I seem to disappear of the shoulder of the information superhighway, don't be alarmed, I just had my driving privileges pulled for a bit.

OH, no! We'll sure miss you here.

Have a great trip, and I hope you get a chance to be online from time to time while in NYC.

Sorry to hear that, OS.

Does your employer offer combat pay?

Well all is not lost, the hotel might have internet access, I don't know yet, but I still have hope.







Nope. However, I will be working with the Core Department which means for my time there I will be hourly, not piece work. Plus, NYCs scale is 30% higher then St. Louis, so it will be very good money with near zero living expenses for me.

Might even make enough to make up for not qualifying for the earned income tax credit this year.

Never volunteer. That is the mantra of all lower enlisted in the armed forces I think. I am on an alert roster and could be called up any single moment for something in CONUS which is just training for the box next year.

Do sailors get BAH? I figured my pay for a 1 year tour in Iraq. This is BAH, Hazard Pay, Per Diem and basepay and its basically 30k......while the contractors get 100k.

You might want to erase the specific date to something more arbitrary. Just an OPSEC reminder

NO NO NO- it is not "never volunteer" but "pick what you volunteer first after careful research" LOL- If you never volunteer you are pegged as a dirt bag.

I am so far ahead on my drill schedule I don't even have to attend anual training for another year. I am in under "try one" so I have to decide if I want to stick it out for another year next April.

OK just to clear up the confusion this trip is for my civilian employer, ADT not the Navy.

On the lighter side of things, upcoming events in NY area:

Genitorturers:
10/28 Clifton, NJ-Dingbatz
10/29 NYC-Shelter ***Smack! Halloween Ball
10/31 Philadelphia, PA- Electric Factory with Gwar

Greenwich Village Halloween parade:
Sept 30

Hanzel Und Gretyl: (opening for Ministry)
10.19.2004 BB Kings New York, NY
10.20.2004 BB Kings New York, NY
10.21.2004 Chance Theater Poughkeepsie, NY
10.22.2004 The Trocadero Philadelphia, PA

Slayer:
11.11.04 New York Roseland Ballroom w/ Killswitch Engage & Mastodon

Bent Brother (Twisted Sister):
November 6: The Downtown, Farmingdale, NY
December 4: The Chance, Poughkeepsie, NY
December 11: TBA. Stay tuned.

A few years ago, one of the bosses at my previous employer (in MD) came to me asking if I wanted to go to Washington State for a project. Being young, single, and thinking of a week of grunge music and lattes, I said, yeah, sure. The next week there was a 1" thick package from the Hanford, WA board of tourism. Thinking that this was a bit odd for a trip of a few days, I asked said boss what was up. Apparently, this was no business trip, this was a relocation for 3-4 months, to the country's largest superfund site.

I told him I wasn't going.

OK well heres the update.

I was brought in to help on a bunch of large bank projects. However, the local management quickly learned two things about me. One, I am skilled in alot of little odd ball areas in the industry, and two I am very good at taking raving customers and turning them into happy customers.

As a result I am now on "clean up" detail. With alot of local technicians gone, and a complete change of office management there are alot of customers who fell through the cracks that are now fuming. I have been "honored" with the task of fixing these messes.

That nightmare aside I found something rather funny here.

Wellesley Inn

This is the hotel they originally put us up in. Looks wonderful, notice the suite style rooms with separate sleeping area, refrigerator, microwave, internet access included, laundry service included, etc.

Now the actual room looks like any motel 6 you ever stayed at, with not fridge, or microwave (though they say there are two in the hotel) the heat is missing from there heated pool, the internet access is free, so long as you pay $9.95 a day to access it, the suite part is missing from the hotel rooms all together and several of my guy had rooms where the leaky roof leaked into their room.

Surprizingly, the management here heard about this through the grapevine and moved us to another hotel.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that if you are traveling, you check to see if there is a Spring Hill Suites by Marriott in the area. GREAT service, real suite rooms, great price (was 5.00 a month cheaper then the other hotel) and wonderful amenities including high speed (600+ doth directions) wireless internet access and wireless kits you can use for free if you need to. SpringHill Suites

So living is now better. Driving, now that is another story.

So far all of my work has been in the Bronx, and most days are multiple sites in a day. I would almost rather be back on convoy duty in Enduring/Iraqi freedom then driving a van full of blind spots in the Bronx.

For anyone who doesn't know what it was like, here is the advice I was given:

The other guy doesn't want to hit you anymore then you want to hit him
DON'T use your directional, they will purposely block you if you do, just go.
Defensive driving is walking. If you can't drive aggressively, you can work here.

They didn't find the humor in my comment that the other advice they should give is:

Hey, it's not your personal truck anyway.

So, needless to say, driving through the Bronx is the most stressful part of the day, with finding a place to park once I get there being a close second.

Well, my company will be flying me home ever other week or so to visit the family, and the other weekends, when I am not working I will be visiting my Mom in NJ (as I am doing today) so it's not so bad.

Plus with the pay rate here and the hours needed I am making a little more in one week here then I usually make in two back in St. Louis.

So, that's the update on my adventure so far. Now if I could only figure out how to get them to fly out my wife one weekend instead of flying me how that would be great as she REALLY wants to see the bronx zoo. Hmmmmm, the misc. category for the expense reports?